Rose Petals in the Darkness
by Alli-dunno
Summary: There is a new girl at Kurama's school and he finds himself connected to her through his dreams. But is this ominous threat looming on the horizon too much for even our Spirit Detectives to handle?
1. Only a Dream

**A/n: **Here it is… The nicely revised version of _Rose Petals!! _It took me a while to think about how this was going to go down… But after some typing, and finally got the newly revised first chapter done!!!

Anyone who read the old version will notice that the beginning is considerably changed…. So, whatever… It's a new story, and it's more tied together…

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Yuyu Hakusho, then I probably wouldn't be writing fan fiction about it…

**Chapter 1: Only a Dream**

_Nothing…._

_There was vast nothingness as far as one could see… Everything was a gray color; not black darkness and not white light either…All it was a bland, gray color…_

_The area, wherever the "area" was, held an empty feeling… A figure stood there… A girl to be exact, and stared off into the pool of grayness, and felt hollow inside… She felt empty; devoid of any kind of emotion… She just felt…surreal, kind of like an out-of-body experience…_

_It was a thrill for the girl… She sucked in a tight breath, and shivers were sent down her spine… A cool, icy kind of feeling overwhelmed her completely bare body… She hugged her arms across her torso, trying to warm herself…But she still felt cold, and it seemed to continue chilling as each long second passed by…_

_It was unusual… Did time really exist? Or was this just a realm where time stopped, and everything is just at a standstill?_

_Or…?_

A groan escaped his mouth…

Suichi Minamino's hand reached over to the alarm clock, shutting off the incessant ringing that broke him from his sleep… His eyes were unfocused, and his vision cloudy… He sat up, rubbing his eyes… His vision was regained after a few second of rubbing, and he sighed…

As calm and collected as he was, Suichi still had days where he didn't want to wake up at all… He would think _why is school so early?_ And then he'd shake off the question and go anyway… He _had _to like school after all…

He was the top student there…

But even geniuses have a right to hate waking up, right?

Standing up, Suichi ran a hand through his hair… After walking around a bit, he changed into his school uniform, grabbed his bags, and walked downstairs…

"Hello Suichi!" his mother, Shiori, said, smiling at him…

"Hello mother…" Suichi managed a smile…

"Are you going to eat?" Shiori looked at her son, lifting an eyebrow as he headed to the door…

"No thank you…" Suichi turned to his mother, smiling in reassurance… "I'm not that hungry, so I'll just head off now…"

"Alright then…" Shiori sighed at her son's stubbornness… "I'll see you later…"

"Yes, mother!" Suichi lifted a hand, smiling as he exited the house…

_**Somewhere else….**_

****"What was that?" Kiara Mizuki sprung up in her bed… Rubbing her eyes, and her head, she looked up at the window…

_What in the hell was that? _

Kiara hated dreams sometimes… Especially ones that leave an after-effect… This particular dream left Kiara with a chilly, eerie, impending-doom kind of feeling…

Not that she felt that way a lot…

"Whatever…" Kiara stood up and began to scramble out of her pajamas, and into her school uniform… _What was with the gray? And the chilliness…? And the girl…? What was with any of that?_

Pulling her hair back loosely, Kiara scrambled out of the room, book bag in tow…

"Damn… She's already gone…" Kiara's eye twitched a bit… Her "guardian" had left for work already… "Leave early on my first day to a new school, why doncha Kyoko?"

She then jumped about five feet in the air when the phone rang… Her eye twitched again, and she picked up the phone…

"Kiara!!" a perky voice said on the other line…

"Kyoko…Hi…" Kiara said, making her best attempt at sounding fine…

"Sorry I had to leave so early… Have fun at school today!" Kyoko practically sang…

"I will have so much fun that when I get home you'll have to duct tape me to the wall because I will be so excited…"Kiara remarked, her voice dripping in sarcasm…

"Not a morning person, are you?" Kyoko said her voice equally sarcastic.

"What makes you think that?" Kiara asked.

"Let me make a list…" Kyoko started.

"Let's not go into it…" Kiara then laughed.

"Yup…So…Bye!" Kyoko then hung up, in a bit of a hurry…

"…" Kiara sighed… She loved Kyoko, as a guardian and all, just not in the mornings…

With that morning conversation branded in her mind, Kiara ran out the door…

_**Back to Suichi (or Kurama…)**_

_…What was with that dream…? It almost felt real… I saw the girl, and I felt what she was feeling… And… _

**_Having difficulties this morning, fox boy?_**

****Suichi sighed, recognizing the sharp voice that entered his head…

_What do you need, Hiei?_

_**Hn… I just sensed some tension is all…**_

_It's nothing, Hiei, just a dream…_

_**Just a dream…**_

_Yes… I'm just a bit…flustered…over a dream I had last night…_

_**I won't ask any farther… **_(A/n: I am making Hiei more open in this conversation, as you can imagine, he isn't so mean when he is talking to Kurama…Who is Suichi…)

_Good idea, Hiei…_

_**Hn… Whatever, Kurama...**_

Suichi sighed at the use of his real name… There was something about hearing it when he was in a school setting, telepathically or not, that kind of felt weird to him…

But…It made sense…

Suichi, or Kurama, hoped that Hiei wouldn't contact him again for the rest of the day… It wasn't helpful for concentration when he was in his head… But, then again, Suichi could block him off just as easily as he could talk to him…

But doing that gave him a headache when he was trying to do tedious schoolwork at the same time…

_**To Kiara now…**_

Kiara entered the school, Meiou High School… It was bigger than her last high school, and almost intimidating… She was amazed that she even made it in, considering it was a very well liked, high rated high school…

She collected her schedule and locker number, and after going to said locker, she set off to find her class… Gripping her binder in one arm, she glanced at her school map as she tried to make her way down the hall… She could feel eyes on her as she walked down…

And she had to admit, she probably looked like a total, uncoordinated dork walking down the halls like this…

After more bumping into people, glancing at maps, tripping on a stair, and more people staring at her, Kiara made it to her first class…

She walked in… The room wasn't chaos…The room was talkative until she walked in… She froze, staring at the students before her… She shook her head a bit, and turned to the teacher, a short, plump old woman…

"Um…I'm new…" Kiara mumbled to the teacher as talking reformed in the room…

"I can tell…" the teacher said jokingly, making Kiara blush a bit… She tucked away her map, and smiled a bit. "Kiara Mizuki, is it?"

"Yeah…And you are…" She looked at her schedule, her face flushed… "Mrs. Takahashi?"

"That is me…" Mrs. Takahashi smiled. "Okay, miss…You will sit next to…Suichi…"

"Who?" Kiara lifted a finger.

"He's the hardest one to miss in this room…" Mrs. Takahashi smiled a bit… Kiara turned and looked amongst a collection of students… Only one stood out the most…

And Kiara froze…

The one who stood out the most was sitting in a corner at a desk, reading a book… He had long, bright red hair and forest green eyes… He seemed tall and nicely built for someone their age… In short…He was just really hot…

"Him?" Kiara pointed.

"Yes…" Mrs. Takahashi smirked a bit in sheer amusement…

Kiara asked no more questions and just walked over, standing next to her desk… She set her stuff down and the boy, Suichi, looked up at her…

And a chilly, eerie feeling swept over her… A stronger one than when she woke up… And it sent full-body shivers that nearly made her jump out of her skin…

_**Kurama…**_

Suichi looked up at the girl in front of him, the "hot, new girl" that he had heard a group of jocks talking about a few desks away… He hadn't bothered to look up… But since she was apparently sitting in front of him, he looked up…

She was definitely an attractive girl… She had long, long shiny black hair that was loosely tied back and the base of her neck… And she had bright, unusual sapphire-colored eyes that, right now, held a look of shock and surprise… She was tall, but shorted than him, and had a curvy kind of figure…

The two locked eyes; sapphire met emerald…

And the strangest feeling suddenly swept over him… He set his book down the minute he felt it…

It was cold, eerie feeling that sent shivers through his body… He nearly jumped, but kept his composure as it happened… After the feeling left him, he just stared at the girl…

_Who is this girl? She isn't normal at all…_

_**Kiara…**_

_Who is this guy? There is something unusual about him… _

Kiara couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she felt there was something oddly familiar about his guy… She had seen him jolt a bit too, at the same time as she did…

Did he feel the same thing?

She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something told her that he did.

_**Kurama…**_

Suichi stared; kind of curious as to why she jolted as she did… Strange how he jolted too…

Was there a connection?

Suichi knew something was up… He could just tell… But was that "something?"

"Hello…" Suichi finally broke the unusual silence between the two.

"Um…" Suichi saw her face grow a bright pink-red color, and grew a bit flustered… "Hi! Sorry about the staring…I-I…I-I um… Yeah… Sorry…"

"Don't worry about anything…" he responded, chuckling a bit at her flustered, but cute expression.

"Um…I'm Kiara…Kiara Mizuki…" Kiara said, finally realizing she was standing, and sat down.

"I am Suichi Minamino…" Suichi said, smiling…

Silence…

Awkward silence…

"Okay class!! Time to begin!!" Mrs. Takahashi belted out…

And so it began…

_**Later, after school…**_

Suichi fumbled a bit with a book as he put it in his bag… Sighing as he finally got it; Suichi shut his locker and headed off… He walked down the crowded hallways; he dodged groups of people standing there and a group migrating to buses and couples making out in the hallways, as if saying a final goodbye before the guy goes off to war of 20 years…

He groaned a bit in mild annoyance, but kept his composure, as usual…

He stopped after making out the doors, and turned his head…

There was Kiara, the new girl… She walked slowly, as if wasting time and her eyes stared off… She seemed lost in thoughts; daydreaming…

Suichi decided to catch up with her…

There was something about her; many things about her, and he wanted to find out what those "things" were…

"Kiara…" Suichi walked up next to the girl, and she jumped a bit to the side in surprise…

"Oh, Suichi!" Kiara laughed a bit… "You startled me…"

"Sorry…" he laughed.

"Mind if I walk with you?" Suichi said in his usual, cool voice.

"Nope…" Kiara shrugged and they headed out of the school and onto the streets…

There was an awkward silence…Again…

They had talked before this moment…As it turned out, the two had many classes together, so they had made small conversation throughout the day… At lunch, he had helped her a bit in trying to navigate, telling her where certain areas were…

But they still encountered the strange silences…

"So…" Kiara turned… "Who do you live with?"

"I live with my mother…My father passed on quite some time ago…" Suichi smiled. (A/n: I don't know the step-father or brother enough to use them yet…I might use them in the sequel or something, so go with it…)

"Oh… My parents died a while ago…" Kiara said. "When I was 10…So, I live with a lady named Kyoko Yamata, who was a friend of my mom's…"

"I'm sorry about that…" Suichi said, sounding truly sympathetic.

"Don't worry… I got over it six years ago…" Kiara laughed a bit…

And so came another silence…

"You know, I felt something odd when I first saw you…" Kiara started.

"You did?" Suichi turned.

"Yeah… And it isn't just because you were the most noticeable in the room, no offense…" she rubbed the back of her head, a blush trailing across her face.

"None taken…I get that quite a bit…" he laughed it off.

"Well…It probably had to do with the fact that I was freaked out by last night's dream… I just felt kind of shivery when I met you… When we locked eyes, I felt jumpy…" Kiara trailed off, and then slapped herself… "That wasn't straightforward and blunt, now was it Kiara? Go ahead and tell him everything else on your mind while you're at it!" Kiara had her hand on her head, and seemed to be punishing herself…

"You shouldn't worry about it…" Suichi found her antics rather funny… "If you wish to know the truth, I myself felt the same way…"

"Whoa…Maybe I'm not as insane as I thought I was…" Kiara stared, almost shocked at that.

"It's odd isn't it?" Suichi turned and looked down (It turned out that he really was as tall as Kiara thought) and smiled at her… "I was perturbed by a dream I had last night as well…"

"Well… That isn't weird, is it?" Kiara had sarcasm in her voice… "I wouldn't call what I had an actual dream… It really was just this figure, a girl I presume, standing a void of gray…Weird, huh?"

"…" Suichi stared down at her, his green eyes kind of wide in surprise… "How odd…"

"What?" Kiara turned.

"That was my dream… How odd…" He rubbed his head…

"Um…" Kiara stopped in her tracks… "You had the same dream, or are you messing with me because it is easy to do?"

"Of course not!" Suichi put his hands in front of him in a defense of sorts… He laughed a bit… "I'm telling the truth… I did have such dreams last night…"

"Okay…" Kiara dropped her bags, putting both hands on her head… "I'm…kind of freaked out right now..."

"I'm a bit troubled myself…" Suichi sighed.

"You think there's a reason for this or do you think it was just a coincidence?" she looked up at the redhead.

"I can't really say…" Suichi sighed… _I would like to say yes to that, but…_

_**Fox boy…**_

_Hiei…_

_**Who is the girl you're with?**_

_How does that concern you, Hiei?_

_**I sense something odd…. She has a half-demonic aura, Kurama…**_

_I am fully aware of this…Actually; I think there is more to it than that… _

_**What do you mean?**_

_I won't go into what I mean just yet, Hiei… I will wait until I look further into this… _

_**Do I wish to know, fox?**_

_No, actually, you don't…. It doesn't concern you, right now anyway… _

_**It will concern me and the other two idiots once that fool Koenma gets word that a half-demon girl goes to your school… **_

_I am aware of this too, Hiei… I can sense some strange things from this girl, and I will repeat, that I think there is more beyond that…_

_**Hn… Whatever, Kurama… **_

_Take it as you will, Hiei… _

_**Hn…**_

_You can go now, Hiei…_

_**Hn…**_

****He sighed… His conversations with Hiei always ended like that…

"Suichi?" Kiara finally said… "What's going on? You got quiet…"

"Oh…It's nothing… Just spacing out a bit is all…" Suichi smiled… The two picked up their bags and continued down the streets…

"You know, you're the only student that talked to me today?" Kiara looked up.

"Oh… I would imagine that others would have talked to you…" Suichi stared down…

"Nope… Maybe it's because I didn't talk…" Kiara shrugged. "I just thought I'd tell you…"

"Well…At least you've made one friend…" he remarked.

"…" Kiara blushed a bit at that.

"You'll make more tomorrow…" Suichi shrugged.

"Um…Yeah…" Kiara laughed and stopped abruptly.

"Yes?" Suichi turned, and noticed she was in front of a house… Kiara slapped herself again, and turned back to Suichi… He turned to the house, and on the porch was a tall, slender woman… She had short, orange-ish hair and brown eyes… She was dressed casually, and held a cup of tea in her hands… The woman held a smirk on her face…

"Hey, you're home!" the woman laughed at Kiara.

"Yes…" Kiara had a bit of pink on her cheeks…Kiara walked up the porch, while Suichi just stood where he was, on the other side of the small yard.

"Hello Kyoko..." Kiara stared.

"Who is your handsome friend here?" Kyoko turned to Kiara, sipping from her tea…

"…" Kiara's face turned a red color, and Suichi's did a bit too. "This is Suichi…He helped me out a lot today… Suichi, this is Kyoko, the lady I told you about…"

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am…" he lifted a hand.

"The pleasure's mine…" Kyoko waved.

"I will see you tomorrow then, Kiara…" Suichi lifted a hand…

"Bye!" Kiara called… Suichi walked off, towards the streets again… He could hear Kiara yelling at Kyoko about "embarrassing him" as he walked away…

And he smiled a bit at it in amusement…

_This is going to be very…interesting… _

At least he finally had a friend who went to his school…


	2. Suffocation

**A/n: **Well, here I am with chapter 2 of this wonderful revision…

Some stuff I ought to explain… First off, I will start calling Kurama…well Kurama from this point on… Though, he will be called Suichi by Kiara and people like his mother and stuff…You'll know who it is right? I just thought it'd be easier to call him Kurama than trying to juggle two names and make it make sense…

Also, I'm basing a lot of this on songs I've listened to…At least, occasionally, or so, there will be quotes from songs… If it's dark like this, it makes sense, right?

So… This is one of those every other kind of updates… I'm focusing mainly on _A Destiny That Binds_ which is sort of like my baby right now… This won't be neglected! I want this story to be good, and if it means a long string of time, than so be it…

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Yuyu Hakusho…So ha…

_"Mary had a lamb/his eyes black as coal/ if we play very quiet, my lamb/ Mary never has to know." - _"Lose Control" by Evanescence

**Chapter 2: Suffocation**

Sleep wasn't coming easily for Kurama….

And that kind of annoyed him…

Kurama just sat in his bed, staring up at the ceiling…He wasn't the kind to toss and turn unendingly…He just sat and waited patiently for sleep to come to him… Unfortunately for Kurama, slumber was giving him a very, very long wait…

Groaning inaudibly, Kurama blinked, turning his gaze to the window…

Why was he so restless tonight?

The redhead couldn't answer that question, which was unusual, considering he could _always _answer questions… He supposed questions concerning his own health and welfare were the unanswerable questions…

At least he didn't have to go to school in the morning…

If so, he would have been running on a very minute amount of sleep…

Sleep had been unusually difficult for two weeks now… Kurama hadn't quite put his finger on it, but there was a looming feeling that something bad was going to happen... Either it was intuition or the annoying, nagging feeling in his stomach, but either way something told him that something was going to go down…

Something big…

And usually Kurama's intuition and annoying stomach feelings weren't wrong…

And, once again, that kind of annoyed him…

He figured all of this out the day he met Kiara… Two weeks had gone by since he met her, and, unusually enough, the two had taken on quite nicely to each other… This was odd, since Kurama was usually a loner in school... He didn't mind, though... Having someone to talk too, despite obvious personality differences was nice…

Though the two had become friends, Kurama had that sneaky suspicion that Kiara had a connection this…

But he couldn't be sure, so he just waited…

And since big "things," apocalyptic or not, came at a very slow pace, Kurama just had to wade it out and see… It must be that whole "looming-doomsday-fear" thing…

_**Fox boy…**_

_Hiei...Why are you contacting me in the middle of the night…?_

_**It's not that late…**_

_It's half past midnight, Hiei…Not all of us are nocturnal like you…_

_**Whatever… **_

_So, what do you need?_

_**I want to talk to you about that girl…**_

_What do you need to know now, Hiei? _Kurama sighed loudly…

_**I know you know that that girl friend of yours is unusual…**_

_First off, Hiei, I wouldn't go as far as to consider Kiara my girl friend, and secondly, I know she's "unusual"_

_**When are you going to ask her about her demonic blood?**_

_I'm just going on the wild assumption that she doesn't know that she has demonic blood in her, Hiei…Not everyone is aware of it…_

_**How do you know?**_

_I just know, Hiei… I'm not going to outright interrogate her about it when there's the great possibility that Kiara doesn't even know about it…_

…

_It's true, Hiei…_

_**It just bothers me is all… Besides, that annoying prince is going to find out about her and send his happy assistant to kidnap her because of it…**_

_I'm aware that Koenma will want her once he knows…But that is just it, he'll figure it out when he figures it out… _

**_What do you imply by that, fox?_**

_What I'm implying, Hiei is that Koenma doesn't know yet… You know as well as I do that there is something on Koenma's mind that he isn't telling any of us… _

_**You're not telling me something, are you fox?**_

_It could be that I find irony in that I met Kiara at the same time Koenma became more allusive…_

_**You think that that girl has a connection to something?**_

_She could possibly be connected to "something" whatever this "something" is… But don't quote me, Hiei…_

_**Whatever, fox…**_

_Is that all you wanted Hiei? _

_**There is just something that bugs me about that girl, Kurama…**_

_I wouldn't say it bugs me Hiei… I'm just going to wade this out and see what comes of it…I won't know anything until something does happen…_

_**Whatever fox…? **_

With that, the fire demon left the telepathic conversation….

That wasn't the first time Hiei had interrogated Kurama about Kiara… The minute Kurama met her, Hiei had made his impression of "that girl," as he so kindly referred to her as, known…

Kurama knew Hiei had just as much of a hunch as he did about this "looming" feeling of something big approaching…

It was confusing, yes, but Kurama had to just take it…

He was certain that Kiara had no idea about her demonic origins (which were very odd, at that).

It was going to take a while, but Kurama was just going to have to put up with all of this…

Kurama sighed loudly, trying to clear his head of any thoughts… Kurama concluded that if he cleared his head, he might actually sleep…

And that would be an _excellent _accomplishment on his part…

And just as he hypothesized, Kurama feel asleep…

_**The next day…**_

Kurama had woken up unusually late that day, at least for him… He woke up at 10:00… Sighing at his sleep-in, at least in his opinion, Kurama got up and got dressed, simply dressing in a light green shirt and jeans…

After assembling himself, Kurama walked downstairs in the midst of an empty house… His mother was at work, as expected, so Kurama had the house to himself for the day…

He silently nibbled on some cereal and milk while just sitting at the table… He was never too hungry in the mornings anyways, so he was content with only eating a small portion of it…

Kurama adverted his attention to the window, again… What was going on? Kurama didn't know, but the more he thought about it, the weirder it made him feel….

And that kind of annoyed him…Again…

_**We keep talking about her, but what about Kiara?**_

Kiara was alone in her house…

As usual…

Kyoko was gone again for a long day of work, leaving Kiara to stay at the house…. But while this happens all the time, there was something different about this time…

She felt uneasy and uncomfortable… And that didn't happen usually…Kiara was alone all of the time and now shouldn't have been any different than other times…

But it was, and that freaked her out kind of…

Kiara had that creepy feeling something-or someone- was watching her… So, in result, Kiara sat a still as stone on her couch… She was careful not to move, obsessing over the fact that if she even moved, some serial killer would hop out virtually nowhere and slit her throat among other horrible things…

Kiara was always the kind to freak out easily…

She changed her thoughts to something other than the creepy-staring feeling… She thought of how much she had changed in the past couple of weeks…

Talking to Suichi changed her a bit, and made her happy… She was happy to have someone to talk to, and someone who finally put up with her and her "abnormality" as she called…

"Arg…" Kiara mumbled to herself… She just couldn't seem to avoid that creepy-staring feeling…

Kiara was certain of it…Something-or someone- were staring at her…Be it a squirrel or some other form of critter, or an actual person (in Kiara's mind it was some creepy, masked stalker dude), it bugged the hell out of her…

And that made her crazy…

Or was she already crazy?

Hm…She couldn't answer that one… (And that worried her a little…)

A noise broke Kiara from her rather sudden train of thought… It was a rustling noise outside of her house… She froze… Was it the creepy stalker guy that she totally dreamed up? Was it the creepy guy with a beard who wanted to torture her among other things?

"God…I need to quit watching so many movies or quit reading those mystery books or something…" Kiara commented wryly to herself in an effortless attempt to calm herself down…

Another noise came…And this one sounded like a door opening and closing in a split second…or so it seemed anyways…

"What…?" Kiara stood up…She turned in the direction of door… No one…

Just vast emptiness…

Kiara turned back around…

And she practically screamed at the next thing that happened…

Something wrapped around her neck…A hand to be exact… It had gently wrapped itself around the base of her next, stroking her hair tenderly with its thumb…

"My, my…" a cool male voice said from behind her…

"Who…" Kiara couldn't manage to choke out any words…Hadn't she had the door locked?

"He's chosen quite a beauty, hasn't he?" the voice continued on.

"Who…are you?" Kiara finally croaked out the words… The voice was silent and in a sudden movement, whirled her around… Now, she stared into the face of a man only a few years older than herself…

He as a tall man with a fairly muscular build… He had long dark silver-ish-blue hair that had some hanging in his eyes and his eyes were an eerie shade of silver. He wore simply a black jacket, blue shirt, black jeans and boots, and had a variety of chains hanging everywhere… In short, he was extremely creepy looking…

"You know, my dear, you look ten times more beautiful that look on your face…" the man said coolly. "Fear and confusion fit well for your eye color…"

"Sure…" Kiara croaked again… The man had a hard lock on her wrists, holding both of them in one hand…

"I suppose you're wondering who I am, my dear?" the man glared perversely at her… "But first, allow me the pleasure of hearing your name?"

"…" Kiara stared, still thoroughly confused and scared as to why a strange man was in her house with a death grip on her wrists… "Kiara…"

"So easy to cooperate, aren't you, my dear?" the man smirked. "My name is Akito…"

"…" Kiara stared still.

Kiara was confused…

Who was this strange looking man in her house? Why did it seem like he was undressing her with his eyes? What was he going to say next or do?

Kiara was shaking a bit now, knowing she was working herself up with all of this panicking she was doing…

But what else was she supposed to do?

It wasn't as if she could just sit there and offer her intruder tea or something…

Hadn't she seen this in a movie? There was a horror movie and there was a girl who was kidnapped and was in the same situation…

What had happened to her…?

Oh, yeah… She died…

"He has definitely picked the right one…" Akito said to himself, staring Kiara up and down. "She is certainly the perfect one…"

"Who?" Kiara found herself asking without thinking…

_Smooth… Just ask your potential killer a question like that… _Kiara practically chastised herself…

"What?" Akito lifted an amused eyebrow.

"I…I…I…I just asked…" Kiara stuttered nervously… Though it wasn't because this was a cute boy… "I mean…Who is this 'he' you keep talking about…"

"Curious one, aren't you?" Akito laughed at the girl.

"…" Kiara just stared. "Well, I just wanted to know…"

_Curiosity killed the cat… Satisfaction brought it back…_

_Funny…_ Kiara stopped her thoughts… _Curiosity caused the crazed psycho to kill the innocent high school girl…_

_And satisfaction will definitely NOT bring her back…_

"I'm afraid it isn't for you to know, my dear…" Akito went back to his cool tone. "I'm afraid I'd have to kill you if I told you…"

"…" Kiara just hesitantly nodded her head, wincing a bit at the pain in her wrists…

A long, eerie silence ensued…

All Kiara heard for a while was breathing…

"But you know my dear…" Akito began, his voice growing from cool to scary within seconds… A sadistic smile tugged at his lips… "I'm going to have to kill you anyway…"

_AH!_

Kiara's eyes were wide now… Akito bent down before hand and had his mouth close to her ear, so his warm breath sent tingles down her spine.

"This should be quite enjoyable…" Akito whispered. "I've always enjoyed torturing…My favorite part is seeing the looks of fear on my victim's face… Especially when my victim is a beautiful girl…" He released her wrists, and Kiara stared down at them, as they were now a telltale purplish color…

And Kiara suddenly lost her breath…

It was as if someone had cut of her air passage all of a sudden… It was quick…

She was breathing one minute and suddenly frozen breathless the next…

Her hands clasped her throat, and gasps and gagging soon followed… Kiara fell to her knees, sweat dripping from her forehead and her blue eyes wide in fear…

"I love this sound…" Akito laughed…

Gag, cough…Gag…Gasp…

_**To Kurama…**_

_Something is wrong…_

Kurama had said that a lot to himself the past couple of weeks, but this time was different…He _knew _something was wrong…

He had only gone out for some fresh air… Being kept up in a stuffy house didn't do well for his growing headache…or his sanity at that…

But even a walk wasn't going to save him from any sort of feeling of approaching evil…or whatever it was….

Kurama's head turned sharply to the side… He didn't realize he had wandered so close to Kiara's street… But he sensed a potent demonic aura, and the putrid scent of it lingered from this direction…

Kurama began running… in the direction of the aura… As he got closer, he realized that Kiara's aura was mixed in with it…

And that could only mean one thing…

One single, solitary, utterly bad thing…

Kiara was in trouble…

At the thought of it, Kurama felt a rush of anger sweep over him and this rush caused him to run faster…

And it was then that Kurama concluded one thing…

The redhead decided that the world was out to get him….

But he ignored that nagging feeling that he was on _someone's _hit list…

As a matter of fact, he was probably on the _world's _hit list… Kurama groaned a bit in total frustration as he ran closer…

He had made nice time… Kurama was now in front of Kiara house… So without any hesitation, Kurama ran up the front door… It was locked…

Great… Just fantastic…

Kiara was extremely lucky that in his past, Kurama was a thief…

So, after a second of fumbling with it, Kurama managed to get the lock undone without damage, and Kurama stepped inside… Running down a simple, small entry hall, Kurama came to the living room, where a horrible sight came upon him…

There was a strange silver haired/eyed man laughing insanely at a choking, suffocating Kiara…

Kurama held no hesitation in running up…

"Well, my dear…" Akito smirked. "It seems you boyfriend has come to your rescue… Just like the fairytales…Though, in fairytales, the princess isn't suffocating to death, is she? Wouldn't that have made them better?"

"Who are you?" Kurama asked bluntly.

"Oh…Well…My name is Akito…" Akito bowed in a sarcastic manner…

"I have no need for your sarcasm…" Kurama replied quickly… He walked swiftly passed the torturer and bent over, staring into Kiara's wide blue eyes…

Gag, cough…Suffocation…Gag…

"Let her be right now…" Kurama turned…

"Oh…" Akito shrugged… "You've come just in time, Prince Charming… You see, I've just gotten orders from my master that I must spare my lovely little sapphire…" He snapped his fingers and Kiara suddenly sucked in a sharp breath before passing out into Kurama's arms…

"My fun has ended…" Akito sighed. "But alas…I guess I'll have to wait again…But the wait makes everything more enjoyable…"

"…" Kurama personally didn't want to know what he meant by that, but I guess he was going to find out anyways…

"If I wait, I can think up new ways to carry out my 'fun.'" Akito explained darkly. "And that makes me happy…" With those final, sadistic words, the strange silver-eyed man disappeared into virtually nothing…

_**A couple of hours later….**_

Kiara's eyes opened, and her vision was fuzzy… She couldn't make out anything but one giant blur that she assumed was the ceiling of her house…

She felt awful… Stiff, weary, chest hurting, sweaty brow, shaky, and scared…

Oh…And she had an enormous headache…

And that, for Kiara, was extremely annoying…

Wait…Hadn't she just been suffocating to death…

She tried to recall everything while trying to regain the sense of seeing…

Then, after getting her vision back, the memories of recent events hit her at full force…

She remembered mostly everything: from the strange noises and feelings to the lightheadedness of suffocating… The slow black cloud taking over her mind…

Yeah…She basically remembered everything…

Wait…

"AH!" Kiara screamed as she sprung up in her couch…

"Good…You're awake…" a calm voice came from the chair.

"…Suichi!" Kiara seemed relieved… "What are you doing here?"

"I was walking by and I saw something odd going on through your window…" Kurama gestured to the front window… "Something seemed off so I came and when no one came to the door, I heard laughing and I came inside to see you suffocating for some reason…"

"So…" Kiara put two and two together… "Did you save me, then?"

"I wouldn't go quite that far, Kiara…" Kurama chuckled a bit…

"I thought I was dead for sure…"

"Well, you alive right?"

"Yep…"  
"…I'm scared…"

"I could understand that…"

A silence formed between the two…

"Kiara…."

"Yes, Suichi?"

"I think you were sought out…"

"…What?" Kiara's head turned sharply to the direction of the redhead.

"What I mean is, Kiara…" Kurama started. "I think someone sent that man out to kill you… I think he _wanted _you dead…"

**A/n: **That was interesting to write… I'm trying to focus mainly through Kurama and Kiara's point of views…Mainly Kurama's…

So… Not much to say… I know Akito was crazy… But… I just pictured someone like that to be in this story...

Review! (Readies Scotty)


	3. A Matter of Balance

**A/n: **Finally! I'm updating this… Jeez, took me long enough, didn't it? But I've been thinking a lot, and finally I know what direction to go in with this story… It will most likely go in an entirely different direction than the first _Rose Petals _went in… Let's just say that everything has changed completely around, and I'm adding another character into the mix that I may make pretty important…

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Yuyu Hakusho…and I never will…so deal with it, people…

**Chapter 3: A Matter of Balance**

The classroom was as loud as it could have possibly gotten… The teacher had left the room, as usual, and that left the rest of the class to grow noisier as each second went by. It was as if all sense of "library voices" had gone away…

Of course, Kurama, in the deeper, more unknown cynical side of his mind, preferred to call those lost voices "shut-up-or-Yoko-will-hurt-you" voices…

But who would understand that?

Granted, the redheaded demon sat in the far corner of the room, staring out the window, lost in a storm of deep thoughts… He was aware that beside him were his other two companions: Kiara, and his former rival, Yuu Kaito.

Yes, Kaito…

That was something Kurama occasionally laughed at. Kaito, who used to despise him, had quickly become his friend after that happened. There was a bit of a competitive edge to this relationship, but it worked somehow... Kurama supposed that being polar opposites had nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, all three of them had somehow formed a pack of their own… Kaito was already Kurama's friend, and the two were joined by Kiara after she latched on to Kurama's companionship. Though, Kaito willingly let her in; he was certainly smitten with the idea of having a pretty girl join their lone duo to make it a trio. Now they were the lone trio: the handsome redhead, the videogame nerd, and the pretty, cheery girl…

Granted, Kurama was already a bit of a loner, and Kaito was no exception to that. Kiara now made it her sole goal to make the two "more sociable."

Now, the motley crew of friends resided in the back of the room, in their corner, all doing their separate "things." While Kurama spaced off, Kiara was intently doodling something on the back cover of her notebook, while Kaito was reading one of his latest manga…Something with a lot of blood, and that is all Kurama could tell about it.

_I wonder if she has been having these dreams. _Kurama thought to himself. _I am aware that she had these dreams, but lately it seems as if I am seeing things that actually happened… _

"Ah ha!" Kurama's thoughts were cut short by Kiara's sudden exclamation. He calmly turned his head to the blue-eyed girl, who had her hands in the air in victory.

"What?" Kaito said without even looking up from his manga.

"I did it!" she said proudly.

"What?" Kaito repeated himself, now slightly curious as to what the girl did.

"I drew us three as bunny rabbits!"

"You did what?" this caused Kaito to put his bookmark in his manga.

"…" Kurama merely shook his head, mildly amused at the situation.

"What?" Kiara said in defense. "I was bored and this is what came of it."

"…" Kaito and Kurama observed the doodles. Granted, they were most obviously rabbits, but weird ones. She had taken a red pen and colored in the hair of one rabbit to show that was Kurama. Kaito's rabbit was a weirdly drawn one with freckles and glasses and an odd scribble on top that both assumed was Kaito's unruly black hair. The other one was a happily smiling one with ponytail and a ribbon.

"You need a social life… or a hobby." Kaito said, returning to his manga.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black." Kiara huffed in response while "tweaking" her masterpiece.

"Hey…I do have a hobby. It just so happens I can recite every line_ the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time_." Kaito defended, but Kurama couldn't tell if it was sarcasm or not.

"Wonderful, Kaito." Kiara smirked. "Where's your Nobel Prize?"

"I'm ignoring you now." Kaito sighed in defeat. "For such a pretty girl, you're very evil."

"I'm not evil…" Kiara pouted.

"Yes you are."

"No!"

"Yes…"

"No…"

"I'm stopping it right there." Kurama found it necessary to intervene. "We don't need you two to enter one of your never ending squabbles."

"Whatever."

A silence followed…A long one…

_**Fox boy…**_

_And to whom do I owe this pleasure, Hiei?_

_**The baby-prince…Actually everyone is a bit worried right now.**_

_And why would they be worried, Hiei?_

_**You seem distracted lately… And that normally isn't you, so whatever.**_

_Did you want to come and psychoanalyze me, or was it against your will?_

_**No… Koenma told me to, so I did it… But what is going on? You told me you were having weird dreams, but you haven't informed me of anything in general for a couple of weeks now.**_

_It's nothing that you or anyone needs to trouble yourselves over. _

_**What is going on, fox? When you say that, it's worse than you're letting on.**_

_You know me well, Hiei. But I won't say anything… Just forget about it, okay?_

_**Whatever, fox…**_

_Anything else, Hiei?_

_**Whatever… Apparently, the Spirit Detective and the others are coming to bug you after school…**_

_Thank you Hiei… _

_**Whatever, fox…**_

With that, the little fire demon left the telepathic conversation. Though, Kurama lost himself in another storm of thoughts….

Granted, he hadn't said anything to the group of the incident involving Kiara and the strange Akito trying to kill her. Actually, only Hiei even knew of Kiara. He hadn't said anything at the last meeting about her to Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan, and even Koenma. Nor had he said anything of his worsening dreams.

It was probably going to haunt him in the future for not telling them, but Kurama didn't care… It happened when it happened.

"Will this class ever end?" Kiara inquired, putting her notebook away.

"It seems as if it isn't going to." Kurama turned, having been snapped from his thoughts again.

"More time for me to read." Kaito mused from his manga.

"If you want to call it reading." Kiara teased.

"To me, it's reading…" Kaito defended.

"Of course…" Kiara trailed off.

At this point, Kurama got a strange, lightheaded feeling. It wasn't very often that the redhead got these feelings but for some reason, it was occurring now of all times. He rubbed his temple for a second, and decided to ignore the feeling for now.

"What's wrong, Suichi?" Kiara turned to the redhead.

"Oh, just a bit of headache." Kurama lifted a hand. "Nothing to worry about."

"Okay…" Kiara shrugged.

"…" Kaito lifted an eyebrow at the fox demon, but returned to his manga.

"Arg…" Kiara pulled out her notebook again, scribbling stuff out of boredom.

"So, Suichi…" Kaito started, placing a bookmark in his manga. "What's going on with this headache thing?" He leaned in closer, in order to keep more secrecy to the conversation.

"Why does it matter?" Kurama lifted an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Because whenever you say that, you're hiding the real extent of something." Kaito adjusted his glasses.

"…" Kurama shook his head. "You sound like Hiei."

"The creepy, short guy I met?" Kaito inquired.

"Yes, and earlier, he said something similar." Kurama laughed a bit.

"Anyway," Kaito started again. "What's going on with this dream thing?"

"Nothing…" Kurama sighed. "Well… You could say they're becoming a bit of a nuisance."

"Is that all you're telling me?" Kaito stared at the redhead.

"In any sense, yes…That is all that is worth saying." Kurama smiled.

"Did I hear something about dreams?" Kiara turned to the two boys. She stopped and made eye contact with Kurama. "Mine aren't getting worse…They're the same every night… Yours aren't getting worse, are they Suichi?" She tapped her foot on the ground.

"No…" Kurama lifted his hands in defense, almost amused that he was getting double-teamed. "They're just getting a little more annoying is all?"

Before the conversation could continue, the bell rang, the end of the day bell, that is. (Since they were in last period.) The trio stood up and went to exit the room. Kurama's headache upgraded to a pounding headache, but he tried his hardest to ignore it. He got to his locker and began to grab his stuff for the day. Everyone was clearing out of the halls, and Kurama leaned against his locker, locked in a very piercing pain. The pain managed to go from his head to the rest of his body, causing him to go a bit numb. And to his dismay, his vision grew cloudy…

"Wait… Suichi!" Kiara's voice was all he heard before he passed out completely…

_Outside the school…_

"I don't think I've every actually been to Kurama's school before…" a girl with blue hair mused. The girl, who was not actually human in the right sense, had her long hair pulled in a ponytail, and also had pink eyes. Placing a hand on her hip, she turned to her two companions.

"I've seen it, like…once." The boy with black hair thought. "It's just a school…" He placed both a hands behind his head. He had slicked back, shiny black hair and brown eyes.

"I've never been here before." The orange-haired boy shrugged. He had curly hair and beady brown eyes, and he was also the tallest. He had both hands casually in his pockets.

"Well, Kurama is usually the one to meet us." The girl mused again. "But let's not worry about that. Let's just find Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara."

"Follow the leader…" Yusuke said nonchalantly, obviously bored. "Use your powers of love to find him, Botan." A mischievous smirk grew across his face.

"What are you implying?" Botan blushed slightly.

"That you're in love with him." Yusuke responded.

"I am not!" Botan defended, stamping her booted foot on the ground. "I am just friends with him."

"Which explains completely why you're so intent on finding out what's wrong with him…" Yusuke smirked again while Kuwabara laughed, amused, in the background.

"I'm ignoring you, Yusuke." Botan huffed.

"Of course…" Yusuke stared. "You know as well as I do that it's nearly impossible to get stuff out of Kurama. He's calm and smart and all that jazz, but he's also kind of stubborn."

"Are you sure stubborn is the right word, Urameshi?" Kuwabara inquired, turning towards the black-haired boy.

"It's as good a word as any." Yusuke shrugged.

"Hey…" Botan pointed ahead at a figure standing at the gates. It was most definitely not Kurama, but he seemed familiar nonetheless. He seemed to be talking to a female figure. After a second, the female figure ran off. "Isn't that Kaito?"

"The dude who used to hate Kurama?" Kuwabara turned.

"Yeah, him…" Botan ran up to him, causing the two boys to follow suit. "Kaito?" (A/n: I'm going on the wild assumption that they're familiar enough to know each other's names on cue…)

"Oh… You three…" Kaito put his manga in his backpack. (Of which he was reading until he was interrupted a couple of times.)

"Hey dude." Yusuke lifted hand.

"What are you guys doing here?" Kaito asked.

"We're supposed to meet Suichi." Botan answered.

"Oh…Well…" Kaito trailed off.

"Well what?" Botan stared at the boy, who was nervously adjusting his glasses.

"A friend of mine just informed me of something…" Kaito responded. "Actually, I was about to head to the infirmary…" He kept trailing off.

"Why the nurse's office?" Kuwabara lifted an eyebrow.

"He's sick?" Yusuke turned to Kuwabara. "What else is the infirmary good for?"

"Getting sick passes out of school?" Kuwabara smirked a bit.

"Well, it's past school's end, so I'm assuming he doesn't want a pass out of school…" Yusuke mused. "But it is easy to do."

_Whack!!_

"Ow…Damn, Botan." Yusuke, along with Kuwabara, rubbed his head. "What was that for?"

"For being idiots…" Botan declared with both hands on her hips.

"What?" Yusuke said. "We're just wondering."

"Oh, Yusuke." Botan sighed. "What am I to do with you?"

"Nothing…" Yusuke received a glare. "Shutting up…" He lifted his hand in innocence.

"Back to what you were saying…" Botan trailed off and turned to Kaito. "What happened?"

"I'll be blunt in fear of interruption." Kaito said. "Apparently, according to my friend, Suichi passed out."

"…" the tree stared at Kaito.

"What?!" Botan exclaimed, staring straight in the eyes of Kaito.

"Yes…" Kaito was apparently unfazed.

"How? Why?" Botan started an inquiry.

"I don't know how someone passes out. Nor do I really know why." Kaito turned on his heel. "All I know is that he told me he had a headache before school ended. And afterwards, our friend found him passing out at his locker."

"That doesn't sound Kurama-ish." Kuwabara worked to place words together.

"Well, not everyday fox boy passes out on us." Yusuke shrugged. "Where's the infirmary, again?"

"Follow me…" Kaito started off. "I did say I was headed that way."

"Following." The three agreed and followed the boy.

_**In Kurama's dreams…**_

_His mind was all just a cloudy blur right now… It seemed as if he was lost in a bit of nothingness at the moment… He supposed it was just an intermission of some sort…calm before the storm._

_Actually, Kurama vaguely remember passing out. He remembered the headache, and he remembered Kiara calling his name…But that was it…_

_Suddenly, Kurama's mind began to take form of a vision of some form… He found himself as floating above a laboratory/torture chamber of some form. (He was some form of an invisible entity at the moment.) There was clearly a female, tall and slender, in a lab coat, but she was shadowed enough so that Kurama couldn't quite tell what she looked like. He saw another figure, delicate, chained to a metal platform on the wall. It was a girl, most definitely, but once again, it was hard to tell who she was._

_"Why dear…" the woman in the lab coat walked to the chained girl. Her high heels made "clack!" sounds against the hard stone floor. She let out her hand, and stroked a piece of the girl's hair. "You're finally useful! Isn't that wonderful? Well, it is for us anyway…"_

_"…" the girl seemed unable to make a response._

_"Exactly." A smirk was visible to Kurama on the woman's face. "Now, finally, I can see if my little experiment works. You get to be my guinea pig…" _

_"…" the girl was silent._

_"Akito!" the woman yelled._

_That caught the majority of Kurama's attention. He turned to a doorway and saw Akito, the very guy who had tried to kill Kiara!_

_**Back to the infirmary…**_

****"Kiara…" Kaito said when he opened the infirmary door. "How's he doing?"

"He's not dead if it counts for anything." Kiara turned, and stopped, seeing the trio of people following after him.

"Um…Hello!" Botan put on the cheery front. It was most obvious to Yusuke and Kuwabara as to the fact that Botan was surprised and curious at the girl sitting next to Kurama. "My name is Botan, what's your name?"

"Um…" Kiara stopped and lifted an eyebrow a bit. "My name is Kiara…Hi?"

"Oh, splendid to meet you." Botan smiled. Inside she was angrily twitching an eye. Who was the pretty girl that was sitting there? "Oh, and this is Yusuke and Kuwabara."

"Uh…hi again." Kiara lifted a hand.

"Ignore her freakish perkiness." Yusuke leaned against the wall.

"These are a few friends of Suichi's…They're from different schools." Kaito was blunt. Putting his backpack on the floor, he sat in a chair next on the end of the bed.

"Oh…" Kiara's confusion seemed to clear. "Well then…"

"We were supposed to meet Suichi, but it appears that…well…" Botan rubbed her neck and trailed off.

"I don't know what happened…" Kiara started. "He passed out when I went to meet him at his locker. He looked pale and all, but I didn't think his headache was that bad… I think anyway."

"The dude has a bad habit of making things seem better than they actually are." Yusuke rolled his eyes, still leaning against the wall casually. "You'll learn it, I'm sure."

"I kind of already figured that." Kiara's voice was flat, staring down at the unconscious redhead.

"Did the nurse call his mother?" Kaito inquired.

"Nope… I told her I'd do it for her." Kiara stared. "But I haven't. If anything, I won't. Since I'm sure Suichi wouldn't want his mother to worry too much."

"If I've figured him out by now, he won't tell her at all." Kaito said flatly.

"Nope…" Yusuke rolled his eyes again.

"Shouldn't we be worried by why he passed out?" Kuwabara intervened. "I'm just curious."

"We'll figure that out when he wakes up." Botan was staring worriedly at Kurama.

_Back to Kurama's dreams…_

_"I want you do start turning on the 'machine.'" The woman instructed._

_"Have you completed the plans for the experiment?" Akito walked over the machine, the one with the metal platform that the girl was strapped to. _

_"Yes." The woman said bluntly. "I'm ready to see if it works."_

_"What'll you do when it's complete?" Akito lifted an eyebrow at the woman. _

_"We'll discuss that later, Akito." The woman sighed in annoyance. "Right now, let's see if it works for us. My guinea pig is growing impatient."_

_"Right." Akito clicked in a code into the machine. There was a sudden flash of light… _

_What Kurama saw before the flash engulfed him was the woman's insane smirk… Before the vision cleared, the girl's piercing scream echoed in his head._

_**Back to the group…**_

_Now that I'm looking more closely, I'm beginning to see that this girl…Is she human? _Botan was in the back of the room, tapping her foot nervously while twirling her hair in her fingers. She was studying Kiara, whose aura now intrigued her. She was surely worried about Kurama's condition at the moment, but what about this girl…

The blue haired woman was questioning what she was… She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but she wasn't human…But was she a demon?

"I'm a bit worried." Kiara stated.

"Well…Understandable…" Kaito shrugged.

_Arg! This is frustrating… I'm a ferry girl of the Spirit World! Why can't I figure out what she is? _Botan mentally hit herself in the head.

"Hey Botan…" Kuwabara whispered in the blue-haired girl's ear. "Do you sense anything strange about that girl?"

"Yes…" Botan whispered back. She began to hope that Kuwabara's keen sixth sense would be of help to her. "Can you tell anything…?"

"Yeah…It's funny." Kuwabara laughed a bit. "She's not fully human, but she isn't a demon at all."

"What?" Botan stared in amazement.

"That's all I can tell…" Kuwabara shrugged. "All I can tell is that she's off-human or something."

"I'll try harder to figure it out, Kuwabara." Botan nodded and Kuwabara went back to his spot on the wall.

_Wait… I'm looking closer… Her spirit energy…It's off…Kuwabara is right! Come on Botan! Arg! Wait… …………… Oh my!!!_

_**To Kurama's dream…**_

_Kurama was in a haze now, thoroughly shocked at the event showed to him. Who was the lady Akito was talking to? And who was the girl she was torturing? This confused him…That had to have been a premonition of some form… He saw something in the past…But what?_

_"It's not fair…" a high, female voice rung in his head. Kurama turned around, trying to locate the voice's source. "It's not fair at all…"_

_"What isn't fair?" Kurama finally decided to answer._

_"She isn't worthy to have it…" the voice echoed…_

_"…" Kurama waited again._

_"She is only a wench…" Kurama suddenly stopped at something cold caressing his cheek. "She can't have you…No one can…She is an evil wench…She was the 'worthy' one…She will die…"_

_"…" Kurama was frozen…as if he couldn't move. Long, long locks of light blond, almost white hair trailed around him. The girl who was speaking was most obviously behind him, and her long locks were gently flowing around him. Her cold hand caressed his cheek, and warm breath could be felt on his ears._

_"Who…are you?" Kurama managed to choke out._

_"You will be mine…" Arms wrapped around him… Her voice was desperate almost. "But…I must rid the world of 'unworthy' ones… I will soon be the worthy one…Soon, I will be the successful one, and everyone else will be the failed results!!" There was a light kiss on the back of his head. "Soon…soon…soon…" The arms unwrapped himself and everything went silent. Kurama was able to move again, but he couldn't quite figure out what that was... He was only left with an eerie feeling inside…_

_Soon, he felt himself drifting away from his dreams…_

_**The group, again…**_

****"Hey!" Kiara's voice lightened up the room, after there was a long silence. "I think he's waking up."

"…" Kurama's green eyes opened, and the first thing he saw was Kiara's enthusiastic smile. "Oh…Hello, Kiara…"

"Don't do that!" Kiara huffed. "You sound so calm for someone who passed out."

"He's always like that." Yusuke's voice was recognizable to Kurama. He assumed that Kuwabara and Botan were there as well.

"Thanks…" Kurama smiled at Yusuke when he sat up. The headache was gone, and he felt a ton better…Well, aside from the lingering creepy feeling in his stomach.

"What was all of that about?" Kaito stared intently at the redhead, adjusting his glasses.

"Do I need to answer that here?" Kurama stood up. He was wobbly at first, but gracefully regained his balance. He had his hands in his pockets now, standing in his usual, straight posture.

"No…" Kaito rolled his eyes and stood too, as did everyone else.

"Sorry about all of that." Kurama rubbed his head. "How long have I been out?"

"Around an hour or so…" Kiara responded. "It's around 3:30-something now."

"Well, not too long then." Kurama grabbed his backpack.

"And no…No one called your mother." Kaito answered.

"Good again…I think the last thing that poor woman needs is the news that her son passed out in school." Kurama sighed.

"Ready to go?" Kuwabara turned. "We do need to talk to you privately."

"I'm all for leaving ahead…" Kaito said, pulling out his manga. "You all have your private chat…I'll e-mail you later, Suichi, to make sure you're still alive and all." Kaito lifted his hand and disappeared down the halls.

"Uh…Listen, Suichi." Botan grabbed Kurama's arm. "I need to talk to you personally."

"Oh…" Kurama sensed hidden meaning in Botan's voice.

"Oh, well then." Kiara smiled. "I'll…uh…let you two talk then!" Kiara lifted a hand. "Let me know later how you're doing!" Kiara ran down the halls after Kaito.

"So, we came along for nothing?" Yusuke managed to say before Botan death-dragged Kurama out of the room.

The two came to a desolate part of the school halls. Botan took this chance to create a portal with her communicator. She and Kurama (albeit Kurama was dragged) went through the portal… They were in a busy, bustling hall; one that Kurama recognized as Spirit World. She dragged him, still, to an empty office room, where no on was in sight.

"Kurama…" Botan turned her pink eyes to Kurama's green ones.

"What is it, Botan?" Kurama regained his tall posture and brushed himself off.

"How much are you not telling us?" Botan's voice was intent.

"…" Kurama sighed loudly, rubbing the back of his head. He pushed a piece of hair back, and returned his gaze back to the ferry girl. "The question is how much do you know?"

"…" Botan walked forward, and looked up at Kurama, who was much taller than her. She looked up at him, her gaze strict and intense. "Why did you pass out like that? And that isn't the only question I have."

"…" Kurama responded with a short silence. "To tell you the truth, Botan, I can't explain I collapsed there, of all times…"

This was followed by an awkward silence on both parts. Kurama stared off in a different direction, and Botan stared in the opposite. She glanced back and the redhead, whose gaze, remained casual and calm, like always. She hated that gaze sometimes… It was the kind of gaze that she knew that with one simple glance; he could dissect every one of her thoughts.

"Kurama." Botan started again. "We've been through a lot together, so I don't know why you're so intent on keeping secrets."

"…" Kurama just kept his calm.

"Oh…" Botan sighed. "How about I start with this question? Who is that Kiara girl?"

"I met her a few weeks ago…" Kurama simply answered. "She moved to my school, and you could say that I found some connection between us two."

"Oh…" Botan sighed. She thought of the resolution she had come to. Did he know? Of course he knew…He was Kurama… "Why didn't you tell us about her?"

"I guess it didn't come up. Seeing as that it was a meeting of the Spirit Detectives, I thought Kiara was the last thing anyone wanted to hear." Kurama smiled.

"I know…It is hard to get a word pass when Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Koenma are all in one room." Botan laughed a bit. "But…It took awhile…and I needed Kuwabara's help…But…Kurama? That girl…She's not human."

"I am aware of this…" Kurama nodded. "I am also aware that she isn't demon, either."

"It is easy to tell that her aura is off totally." Botan trailed off.

"Listen…" Kurama sat down in one of the chairs, and Botan followed suit. "Her aura is off… It was really off. It has changed several times between a demonic aura and a human aura… Hiei has noticed the demonic, so, for all I know, he believes her to be a demon of some form." Kurama stopped for a second. "I think there's no balance there."

"What?" Botan stared and lifted an eyebrow.

"There is no balance in her aura." Kurama repeated. "She can't be half and half, or else Hiei would have noticed right off, and I would have too."

"I'm still a little lost." Botan sighed.

"I don't think there's much else of a way to put it." Kurama turned his head away in thought. "There's an imbalance. She's….off…not either…I think she's another being altogether."

"How can you be sure?" Botan stared at the fox demon.

"I'm not entirely certain." Kurama stopped again. "But all I can say is that this must be very big… If she, whatever she is, can fool even Hiei, who wields the Jagan Eye, then it is big."

"What have you been telling Hiei?" Botan fiddled with her hair.

"I have been playing it off that she's demon." Kurama smiled a bit. "I'll let Hiei stay in the blank for now…Actually, I might as well keep Yusuke in the blank. I'm sure Kuwabara figured it out. What, with his uncanny sixth sense."

"Do you think she knows any of this?" She stared.

"No…" Kurama laughed a bit. "In my opinion, she is totally unaware of it. Kaito, I'm sure, is also unaware of it. But he'll catch on sooner or later, being a psychic and all."

"Oh…"

"Yes." Kurama said. "For now, let's keep this between us until Koenma catches on?"

"Alright." Botan smiled.

"Good. I'd rather keep Hiei blissfully unaware of the real situation. Besides, it is almost amusing that this girl has tricked Hiei. Her aura really is screwed up enough to get anyone with his abilities to believe she's a new kind of demon or something of the like." Kurama smiled, bemused.

"Alright, Kurama." Botan sighed. How could she take this? The situation was obviously bad, since she was certain there was more that he let on.

"There is more, I assure you, Botan." Kurama turned the ferry girl. "But for now, I'll keep that to myself…Until I understand it more."

"I'll make a portal to your home now." Botan created a portal… With a smile and a wave, the redheaded demon left through the portal, leaving the ferry girl to sit there…

_An imbalance? I've never heard of anything like it… I've never met someone who was not human nor demon; someone whose aura was messed up and switches around like he claims… _

_Can someone be manipulating it?_

**A/n: **There you have it… I finally started the main chunk of the plot right here…Explanations are needed!

About Kaito: yes! He's going to play a pretty important role in this story… I figured that Kurama needs another confidant that isn't Hiei…Hiei is one of the coolest characters on the show, but let's face it: he isn't all that confiding…

The Kiara thing: I figured I wanted to change her character around a bit. She is far from a push over, but also, is delightfully cheerful. And the imbalance thing? I'll keep that to myself… I kept it as cryptic as I could in order to ad some more in later…

Yusuke and Kuwabara will play basically the same roles as last time…They are going to be the side characters/comic relief in some cases…

And Kurama's dream: get used to them, especially the chick who touched him in the dream…Oh, and Akito will still make appearances, and the woman in the lab coat will play a big role, but I won't reveal anything about her in fear of spoiling it…

And there is more to Botan that last time too!

Okay! There are my footnotes! PLEASE review!!! (Readies Scotty)


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